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Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Very engaging retelling about the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire This is a very engaging history about the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. As author Adam Hochschild retells it, the realization about the evil of slavery came surprisingly quickly in Great Britain in the closing years of the eighteenth century. By the early months of 1787, most inhabitants of Britain (with the exception of the Quakers and very few other people) would have seen the slave trade as something natural, that had occurred in every civilization in human history. By the closing... more info
A truly outstanding work of history & indispensible for anyone remotely interested in the subject. The abolitionist movement was, Hochschild says, "first sustained mass campaign anywhere on behalf of someone else's rights." in history, as such he considers it to be the ancestor of all modern mass campaigns. The story of the abolition campaign takes in the leading lights of the movement whose personalities and eccentricities are brought to life vividly, as well as the supporters throughout the country who individually had little influence ( most of them could not vote ) but whose mass boycotts of slave... more info
Superb history - but unfair to Wilberforce Bury the Chains is great history, colourful, passionate and informative. But in its efforts to rehabilitate Clarkson at the expense of Wilberforce, it's actually rather unfair to Wilberforce. For example, for 12 years of the 20-year abolition campaign, Clarkson had nothing to do with it, having had a breakdown, while Wilberforce carried on relentlessly. Hochschild brushes past that whole period in five pages (of a 467-page book), sidelining Wilberforce's essential contribution to the campaign. If... more info
Great story, brilliantly written This is history as it should be written. Meticulously researched and written like a novel. The book not only sketches the British campaign to abolish slavery but also gives a great insight into the slave trade in the British empire at its peak. It offers a re-assessment of the role of Wilberforce - traditionally the hero of the anti slavery campaign - who the author sees as a conservative religious zealot. I would have liked to know more about the slave trade in other countries - France, Spain and Portugal... more info
